Buffer memories are used to temporarily store data received from a source to be transmitted to a destination. In a First In First Out (FIFO) buffer memory, as the name indicates, data that is first stored in the buffer memory is first retrieved and transmitted to the destination. FIFO buffer memories are used in communication devices to temporarily store data packets that are transmitted from a source to a destination.
As one skilled in the art appreciates, in a modern communication system, there may be multiple intermediary communication devices between a source device and a destination device. And, each of the communication devices may receive data packets from multiple sources. Additionally, the data packets may be assembled based on different communication protocols.
As data packets based on multiple protocols are received by a communication device for processing and forwarding to a next communication device, the data packets are temporarily stored in a FIFO buffer memory. The communication device may have to process the data packets stored in the FIFO memory for further transmission. Existing techniques for FIFO buffer memory management may not efficiently process the data packets stored in the FIFO memory.